Honda 900F 1980. On start up it only fires on 2 cylinders. As I pull away it starts coming right, but when I open the throttle it starts missin again until I decelerate slightly.

Fully close the choke, shut off switch is toggled to "run". Pull start without using the throttle until the engine fires. Set the choke to the second position, pull start again until the engine fires and idles. Allow some time for the engine to warm up while giving light throttle and when the engine responds smoothly, set choke to fully open.

I have a mower with a Honda 165cc engine that is temperamental as far as the initial start up is concerned.
Once it has started it always fires up first pull
The problem seems to be the gas is slow to reach the carb / cylinder
I have developed a ritual for starting up.
Open the gas tap.
Lean the mower back until the hand bar touches the ground.
Raise the mower and lift the hand bar so the back wheels are off the ground for a few seconds.
Fully open the throttle, Hold the ignition control back and operate the pull cord.
If it doesn't start first time I am usually rewarded with a promising fire-up.
Sounds wacky but works for me and used to spend 20 to pulls on the cord to get it to fire .

glad you found the problem

There are two ignition coils.1) With Black/White and Blue wires that goes to 1 & 4 cylinders2) With Black/White and Yellow wires that goes to 2& 3 cylinders

try switching the position of the two coils, the plug wires will unscrew off of the coils and that way you dont have to pull the spark plug wires too,(be sure and change the 2 wire couplers too) if your front cylinder stops firing you know its the coil, if the back cylinder still doesn't fire then your coil is good and you either have a bad #2 spark unit or a bad crank pulse generator.

Make sure the fuel valve is on. Generally that means pointing down inless there is a diagram on it.

Turn the switch on.

Pull the choke on the carbuerator on full. There will be a picture of a butterfly valve set it so that it is closed. Pull the cord till the engine fires. let it sputter for a second, then open the choke. If the engine dies right away, do all of the above again but once it fires, only open the choke half way. once it warms up a bit open the choke completely.

Hi and welcome to FixYa,

Bypassing the kill switch means removing the connection of the black / white wire either at the emergency stop switch (kill/run), ignition switch or preferably at the CDI connector.

Additionally, you can try:

• start with the side stand up;
• check/wiggle the 6 wires coming from the stator going to the CDI.

Would appreciate a postback on results / updates.

Good luck and thank you for using FixYa.

This sounds more like the carbs than the coil pack, but is unusual that 3 would go dead all at the same time unless it was one side of the ignition. The only time I have had 3 go out was when i had to fix the ignition. I have had to rebuild the carb assy out because of junk in the carbs, but it didn't affect 3 at a time.

Hi,
The # 1 cyl is on the left side as you are sitting on the bike. Firing order does not really apply to these motors as the coils fire twice per cyl. The left coil will fire 1 & 4 the right coil will fire 2 & 3. I usually hook them up as follows: Left outer to #1, Left inner to #4, Right inner to #2, and Right outer to #3
Here is a good site on XJ's
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/7795/xjfaqbig.html
I hope this helps

Hmmm.. did ya get the rotor button in right? Also oil couldve fouled the module.. Not to mention Honda had a recall on distributors around 1996.. check into the recall